'Late Night' comic Mitch Fatel is unapologetically perverse

Comedian Mitch Fatel performs May 8 and 9 at the Wisecrackers Comedy Club in Whitehall.

Comedian Mitch Fatel performs May 8 and 9 at the Wisecrackers Comedy Club in Whitehall. (DAN DION, CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

Dave HowellSpecial to The Morning Call

Mitch Fatel's CDs have tracks like “I Like Breasts” and “I Like Panties, Bras, and High Heel

It is no surprise that comedians are different in private than in public. Mitch Fatel, however, who will perform at Wisecrackers in Whitehall Friday and Saturday , is an extreme example.

From his home in Hoboken, the comedian known for his many appearances on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "The Late Show with David Letterman," is apologetic about missing our first phone call, and is polite and thoughtful as he talks about the art of comedy. He even quotes novelist W. Somerset Maugham.

As for his public persona … onstage, he is known for talking about sex. A lot. And not shying away from the details. Yet there is an innocence about him.

In his online YouTube clips, he acts fascinated by the opposite sex. His CDs have tracks like "I Like Breasts" (from 2004's "Miniskirts and Muffins") and "I Like Panties, Bras, and High Heels," (from 2013's "Public Displays of Perversion"). His Comedy Central special was called "Mitch Fatel is Magical," but it is actually women who hold a magical spell over him.

He also is forthright about his open marriage with his wife, Jessica, and both have done radio interviews describing their hookups with other women.

But Fatel separates his personal life from his work, saying that he is just being honest. "That's a small part of who I am. If people want to put me into a corner, that is their right. With comedy, a lot of people have a peek into your life."

Fatel, 46, does not disavow his raunchy early work, which lives on online, but he says, "I look at my old stuff and, of course, it's horrible. Everyone in the business feels the same way. It's the bane of every performer. I can't even watch the first time I appeared on the Letterman show in 1996. I'm horrified."

"My character has evolved over time. Everybody is a character onstage. It's an attribute of your soul. It's who I am now. I am more responsible and married. You have to evolve. You don't want to hear a musician at 40 talk about partying and being a bad boy."

Fatel began standup when he was 15, having his parents drive him to shows. He would appear in pajamas, saying he had to get up for school the next day. After a few years and a bad show, he gave it up, and returned to the stage in his early 20s.

He as also was an intern for shock jock Howard Stern, where there was some skepticism when he told people he was going to be a full-time standup. He was not paid for his internship, but that did not bother Fatel. "It was an honor to work for those people. They taught you for free, and I made a lot of connections. I found out that celebrity was a sham. A lot of those people were a-------. I wanted to do it without becoming one."

In the New York City clubs, Fatel worked his way up to fulfill his dream of appearing on the "Late Show with David Letterman." He tells young comics: "There are two ways to make it in comedy — in New York City or on the road." He discounts the third alternative of moving to Los Angeles, saying that he prefers the "grit" of East Coast humor.

He has been back on Letterman many times, and has been on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," both as a standup and as a correspondent, where has done interviews at events, including the Super Bowl and the Grammy Awards.

This will be the first time Fatel has appeared in the Allentown area, which is something of a surprise to him since he has been doing standup for about 25 years. He has a cult following, and says that usually 75-80 percent of the people who come to see him are familiar with his work. "It's young kids to grandparents. I rarely play a crowd of newbies. They know who I am from Letterman or Leno."

He has played for newbies before, however, having performed in Australia, Germany, France, England, South Africa and Lebanon. As for his appearance in Beirut, he says, "It was an interesting feeling. I was surprised. It has a huge Christian population who all speak English." He admits that he would probably not do well with a Muslim crowd.

With all his credits, Fatel could avoid comedy clubs and play only larger venues like theaters. But he says, "Club dates are my favorite. Comedy is an intimate art form. It's not meant for big audiences. In theaters, people get lost in the show. You lose people. I don't have a lot of interaction and I'm not an improv comic, but people do become characters in my show."

"I'm constantly writing new jokes. I work on it an hour a day. I love the art of the joke, and I love the use of words. I'm a big fan of reading. Somerset Maugham said that you should write for the love of writing. I do it for the joy of comedy."

The creativity seems to be as important as the performing to Fatel. "About six years ago I was having marital troubles and I couldn't write. I was repeating what I had done earlier, and I hated being onstage."

Fatel says the crisis ultimately made the marriage stronger. He and his wife recently did a reality show that featured their open relationship, but it was never broadcast. "We had a really, really funny pilot. Four people at A&E had to decide. Three liked it, but the fourth didn't want to take a chance."

The comedy business has peaks and valleys, but Fatel says, "Good comedians will always work, and bad comedians will fall by the wayside. If you are meant to be doing something and you have the talent, eventually you will do it."

Jim and Chris Carroll have taken over Wisecrackers, which Jim says has been around for 14 or 15 years — even longer if you count the years before that when it was the Comedy Blast. But Carroll, who has been a standup himself for decades, says, "No one has put anything into it." He vows to bring in "top comics — the best of the best," with headliners that have TV or equivalent credits.